Alabama House OKs sanctions for companies that voluntarily recognize unions

House Majority Leader Scott Stadthagen, R-Hartselle, watches action in the Alabama House of Representatives on April 18, 2024 at the Alabama Statehouse in Montgomery, Alabama. (Brian Lyman/Alabama Reflector)

The Alabama House of Representative passed a bill Tuesday that would effectively sanction companies that voluntarily recognize unions. 

SB 231, sponsored by Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, would withhold economic incentives to a company that voluntarily recognizes a union “solely and exclusively on the basis of signed labor organization authorization cards if the selection of a bargaining representative may be conducted through a secret ballot election.”

“This pertains to any business that receives incentives. It doesn’t specify who receives it. If you do receive it, you have to let your employees vote on a private ballot,” said House Majority Leader Scott Stadhagen, R-Hartselle, who introduced the bill on the House floor.

The bill, which passed 72-30, would exclude companies that already have unionized workforces. Alabama has the highest unionization rate in the South.

The legislation went through a few changes on the floor.

Rep. Tim Wadsworth, R-Arley, introduced an amendment to require the state Department of Revenue to provide a report to the Legislature on or before the start of a regular session of companies that lose incentives due to the legislation. The amendment passed 94-1.

“I’m trying to find out information about a company that lost incentives,” he said.

Wadsworth was one of three Republicans to vote against the measure. Reps. Bryan Brinyark of Windham Springs and Matt Woods of Jasper also voted against it. 

Bren Riley, the president of the AFL-CIO of Alabama, said in March that he only knew of two Alabama companies in the past 40 years that voluntarily recognized a union.

Rep. Patrick Sellers, D-Birmingham, offered an amendment that exempt any agreement made between an employer and local government made before January 2025. Sellers said the amendment would provide employers more protections. The previous version only exempted agreements between employers and the state. The amendment passed 97-1.

Another amendment, proposed by Rep. Brock Colvin, R-Albertville, would make the legislation effective immediately. It would have previously gone into effect on October 1. The amendment passed 75-21.

Rep. Napoleon Bracy, D-Prichard, said there is a reason why unions are coming to Alabama. He said that if employees were valued, they wouldn’t need a third party to advocate for them.

“It’s because of the bad actors. It’s because of the people that don’t want to be good corporate citizens. It’s because of the people that look at greed over making sure that their employees have enough revenue to take home to take care of their families,” Bracy said.

He said that there are situations where workers continue to be put into harmful situations, and they will keep doing the job because there may not be other opportunities, especially in the more rural communities, without many options.

“If you’re very limited to where you can work, you’re not going to buck against the system, you’re going to go in and you’re going to put your head down, you’re going to do what’s asked of you, but sometimes they need somebody else to step in,” he said.

The legislation comes amid high-profile unionization drives at Mercedes-Benz’s plant outside Tuscaloosa and Hyundai’s plant in Montgomery. Mercedes workers, who have cited pay and benefit issues at the plant, are expected to vote on a union in early May. Gov. Kay Ivey and state officials have criticized the union drive.

The bill would require companies that violate its terms to pay back any economic incentives received, though the terms would not apply to benefits given to companies before Jan. 1, 2025.

Rep. Brett Easterbrook, R-Fruitdale, said that unions were initially “the best thing that ever happened to this country to the workforce,” but that’s not the case anymore. He said that there were more people than jobs, which he said creates problems “one way or the other.”

“I’m not opposed to unions, and I’m not for them. I like for people to be able to vote, but they should vote in private,” he said.

The bill goes back to the Senate for concurrence in the House amendments or a conference committee.

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